Question

In horses coat color shows incomplete dominance: the alleles are chestnut color (Hc) and cremello (Hcr); heterozygous individuals have the phenotype palamino. What are the predicted phenotypes from a cross between a palamino and cremello colored horses? What are the genotypes?

Answer 1

Answer: 50% will be HcHcr (heterozygous, palamino) and the other 50% will be HcrHcr (homozygous, cremello)

Explanation:

Incomplete dominance is the genetic interaction in which homozygotes are phenotypically different from heterozygotes. Crosses that have incomplete dominance are those in which there is no dominant trait, nor recessive.

Organisms are diploid, which means that they have 2 alleles of each gene. Heterozygous means there are two different alleles, while homozygous means there are two identical alleles. Henceforth, the palamino horse has a HcHcr genotype because they have different alleles. The cremello horse has a HcHcr genotype.

During fertilization, the gametes produced by the horses are fused together. Gametes are sex cells that can be either an egg or a spermatozoon. The gametes produced by these organisms are haploid, which means that they have only one allele of each gene. So, the palamino horse can produce gametes with genotype Hc or Hcr. And the cremello horse can only produce Hcr gametes.

As it is shown in the punnett square, in the offspring, 50% will be HcHcr (heterozygous, palamino) and the other 50% will be HcrHcr (homozygous, cremello)